Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud, where each week we choose some of our favourite articles from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud.

I'm Patrick Gibbons and on this week's podcast.

Ian Thompson explains why the destruction of a hotel is emblematic of

the wider destruction of Haitian culture. Patrick Kidd analyzes Donald Trump and the art of

golf diplomacy. Arguing that further sequels to train spotting is lazy, Mike Cormack reviews

Irvin Welsh's Men in Love. Ursula Buckin provides her notes on the Palm House at Q, following the news that it will

close for renovation for five years.

And finally, before being played out by the Emperor Waltz, Richard Bratby argues that the

lack of anniversary celebrations for Johann Strauss smacks of the snobbery of the arts.

Up first, Ian Thompson.

Earlier this month, in Haiti's Tata-Demalian capital of Port-au-Prince, armed gangs burned down the Hotel Oliveson.

As news of the attack spread, both Haitians and foreigners mourned the loss of one of the most beautiful gingerbread mansions in the Caribbean.

Thinly disguised as the Hotel Trianon in Graham Green's 1966 novel, The Comedians,

the Olofson had served as a meeting place for writers, journalists, actors and artists of every stripe and nationality.

Past guests included Noel Coward, John Gilgut, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams,

Jacqueline Anassis, and Mick Jagger, who wrote Emotional Rescue there.

Laughably, a room had been named after me as the author of a book on Haiti.

The manager, Richard August Morse, had been overseeing the hotel remotely from the United States

after it closed to guests in 2024 because of escalating gang violence.

Rumours had long circulated that it was under threat of arson, but news in Haiti is always

haphazard. Often there is only the Telejol, or Creel for grapevine. So Richard didn't know what to believe when he heard the

hotel had burned to the ground. I did what I usually do, which is call someone who has drones

...